Thursday, April 30, 2015

When Millie came along we put her in Eli's old room and we moved Eli into what was the guest room. We finished working on some improvements in here over the summer but I just never seemed to find the time to show it until now! Some of the things we did we were put in a new closet, re-drywall the one side of the room, put in new wiring and lighting and then I gave the whole room a fresh coat of paint.

The nightstand is the same one that was in here when this was the guest bedroom. I bought the lamp at Target and the antique mirror is a $2 flea market find.

I wanted to stick with simple blue and white bedding in here. When I first put all of this bedding on Eli's bed he walked in and said "Oh Mom! It just looks so comfy!"...made me laugh.

The grainsack, ticking duvet cover and quilt are all inexpensive Ebay finds. The antique homespun checkered pillow cover was an Etsy find.

The antique trunk at the end of the bed was one of the first things that my mom bought me when I went away to college. Not all college age girls want an antique trunk for their first apartment but hey I guess some things never change right. Now it serves as the perfect storage piece for Eli's toys.

The closet is new to the room.

It had been a very scary and gross particle board "closet" if you could even call it that. We think this space is where the original steps to the upstairs were and that the closet was added in the last 50 years or so. This dark corner always drove me crazy and I tried to avoid ever taking pictures of it, this one below is the best I could find.

We ripped that out and found some very moldy drywall, wallpaper and the original plaster. I almost always try and save original plaster when I find it but this was beyond saving.

Neal then ran new wiring and framed out a new closet.

I am dying to add plank walls SOMEWHERE in our farmhouse since there are none original to the house. Sadly that was not a common thing to do in this part of the US, clearly it was in Waco, Texas if you watch Fixer Upper you know what I mean! I thought the side of the closet would be a great place to start. Neal got the idea to use cedar, however cedar can be pricey. Then I told him about individual pieces of cedar fencing that I saw for sale at the Home Depot for less than $3 each. He cut them down to size and they worked perfectly!

I recommend priming it with a stain blocking primer like Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer because over time the white paint will yellow if you don't.

For the doors to the closet we used salvaged doors that I had bought at the flea market for the bottom part and a set of doors that had been on a cupboard in our garage for the upper part. I found reproduction cabinet latches on Etsy, sadly the shop that carried them doesn't sell them anymore. They were super cheap and now I am kicking myself because I should have bought them all!

There was no overhead light in this room so while we were running new electric in this corner I thought we should try and get some brighter lighting sources. I had Neal put an electrical box on the upper outside wall of the closet so that we could hang a big barn light (Lowe's).

I also wanted to incorporate (as usual) some sort of industrial style lighting but didn't want to spend a lot on it. We bought an $18.00 wall sconce from Lowes and bought an industrial bulb. I sprayed the silver socket part with brown spray paint so that it wouldn't stand out as much.

I knew I wanted to make a giant old school room inspired chalk board for Eli's room and was walking through Hobby Lobby one day when I spotted this giant picture frame for $10. I stained it Minwax's Dark Walnut and Neal cut a piece of thin plywood underlayment (what I use for all of my chalk boards) to fit. Total cost was less than $25 for the whole chalkboard.

My ever so talented sister-in-law Emilee did the old fashioned lettering down the side with a chalk pen.

I picked up the old chair for $5 at a yard sale we happened to pass the day we were on the way to buy the lighting for this room. As for the paint color in here I don't know what it is:/ Sorry. I had picked up a mistint color as usual and it turned out to be the perfect Khaki color that I can never seem to find. Most khaki looking paints end up having a pink or green undertone to me but this one was perfect and stays true no matter what the lighting. I had it color matched at Home Depot. The floor is painted Martha Stewart's "Sisal".

It makes me sad but now that Eli is in a double bed I will be selling his bedding from his old room in my Etsy shop. I am really trying to clear out the things that I don't have a place for. On that same note I will be selling most of the things that I had in this room when it was the guest bedroom. So if you like red visit my Etsy shop in the next week or so.

Let me know if there is anything I didn't explain that you want to know about. I don't want to have my blog sound like one big commercial but I get SO MANY emails inquiring where I got this and that and I have found it is just easier to include it all in the post if I can. Also, if you have ever emailed me with a question and I didn't get back to you please just remind me. I get lots and lots of reader emails and I try to set aside one morning each week to answer them and to visit other blogs. However, sometimes I don't even have the time to do that so please don't think I am ignoring you I just forgot you on my mental list is all! I love that you guys have questions and I also love helping people out with this and that so please never hesitate to ask me something. Thank you guys so much for visiting and for all of your wonderful comments, I know I say it all the time but you guys are the best and I love hearing your thoughts!

Friday, April 24, 2015

Hello and welcome to this month's edition of Farmhouse Friday! Our theme this month is FARMHOUSE STORAGE!

Like most old farmhouses ours is short on closet space so I am always on the search for unique items that can serve as storage pieces. Vintage boxes or handmade items that were used for storing something long ago are my favorite to look for.

My husband Neal built us this long sideboard for our dining room specifically for different storage items that I have collected over the years. If you are a regular vistor to my blog you will notice that we added a bottom shelf to it since I showed it last.

On the sideboard I keep this neat cubby thing that I found at the Country Living Fair. I asked the seller if she happened to have a wine bottle laying around so that I could see if it would fit because I wanted to store my wine in it and she actually did have one. We tested it out and the wine bottle fit perfectly. I was tickled but she was bummed she hadn't thought of it because she could have charged more for the piece!

Neal also built me this beautiful piece with the drawers out of old wood (same cedar that we used for the bathroom floor) from our house. It was a Christmas present a couple years ago and I had no idea that he had been working on it. I absolutely love it and I keep linens and serving pieces that I use for entertaining in it.

The antique basket holds my tablecloths and runners, I like to keep them at arms reach since I change what linens I use on the dining room table so often.

Ahhh cupboards, nothing says farmhouse storage like a cupboard right? I absolutely love primitive cupboards and put one in just about every space I can.

I love their simple beauty and the fact that can hide all of those things that you just don't want out in the open, like your husbands ever growing t-shirt collection.

Or they can be left open and showcase the prettier things, like a collection of quilts.

or linens and ironstone.

By the way some of these linens are currently for sale in my Etsy shop :)

My mom gave me this adorable antique cupboard and I keep it in my sewing room to hold all of our crafting items. I know I promised to show this room some time back and I promise I will show it soon, it has been on my to-do list for awhile now. The problem is that I keep my Etsy inventory in here and I always have a new pile of things that I am about to list, so this room is never photo ready.

I picked up the little white medicine cabinet at the flea market last summer, I just love old white medicine cabinets.

Old trunks are another one of my favorite things to store things in. The trunk in our dining room sitting area is one of my all time favorite flea market finds costing me a whole $10.

It is perfect for holding the air mattress that our guests use when they sleep over and because it is on casters is easy to move out of the way and can even become a bench when needed.

I could never have too many little chests of drawers, they are great for keeping the small stuff organized.

I bought this primitive little set of drawers at the Country Living Fair. I keep little items like my chalk, thumb tacks and stamps in it.

Little apothecary chests and chests of drawers are hard to come by and usually very expensive when you do so for the kitchen I just bought a reproduction one and painted it a creamy white.

So cute to look at vintage metal bread boxes are another storage favorite of mine. They are perfect for those items you don't use daily but want to be able to reach with ease when needed.

Thank you so much for visiting! I hope you enjoyed this edition of Farmhouse Friday. Be sure to check out the other wonderful blogs below! Also, I created a FARMHOUSE5540 Instagram account so be sure to start following me!